This invention deals generally with farm implements and more specifically with a remote control system for the unloading systems of portable grinder-mixers.
A portable grinder-mixer is a specialized farm implement for onsite processing of crop material into livestock feed. Its essential components are a wheel mounted tank with mixing augers, a grinding mill, a loading apparatus and an unloading system. Power is generally supplied by means of a mechanical power take off attachment to the tractor which is used to pull the grinder-mixer.
The unloading system with which this invention deals is an unloading auger which consists of a powered screw auger up to twenty feet long. The unloading auger is both adjustable in its angle to the horizontal and rotatable in the horizontal plane, to permit easy reach to the top of high bins or over fences. Essentially, the unloading auger is anchored at one end to the frame of the grinder-mixer where it is fed by a short, fixed position discharge auger which transports the feed from the tank. The unloading auger generally is used to raise the feed into storage bins, but accessories are available for other purposes, such as bagging the produced feed.
The positioning of unloading augers had previously been accomplished by the use of hand winches for lifting the remote end and simple pulling and tugging to locate the auger in the horizontal plane. More recently hydraulic motors have been substituted for shear brute force to vary the location of the discharge end of the unloading auger. However, the location of the controls and the single control concept have remained unchanged.
Whereas previously the operator was required to leave the tractor and manually orient the unloading auger. The addition of motors still requires him to leave the tractor to manipulate the controls. This operation is limited by being time consuming, strenuous and undesirably inconvenient.
The foregoing illustrates limitations of the known prior art. Thus, it is apparent that it would be advantageous to provide an alternative directed to overcoming one or more of the limitations as set forth above.